Midcentral Health takes over management of Te Papaioea primary birthing unit

Midcentral takes over management

MidCentral Health takes over management of Te Papaioea primary birthing unit

Janine Rankin18:33, Dec 12 2019

More women in the MidCentral Health district are likely to have their babies at Palmerston North's Te Papaioea primary birthing centre when a New Zealand-first partnership takes effect.

The district health board and the centre's owners, the Wright Family Foundation, have agreed the board will lease and take over management of the 2-year-old facility on Ruahine St in April.

The centre caters for well women expected to have uncomplicated deliveries.

Board operations executive for Te Uru Pā Harakeke, the health board's healthy women, children and youth division, Sarah Fenwick said the new deal would help more women give birth in the best place for their needs.

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"There is clear evidence to suggest women with low-risk pregnancies who birth at a primary setting achieve better health outcomes."

Director of midwifery Paula Spargo said the centre had done much to raise the profile of primary birthing units and their benefits.

Healthy women clinical executive Jeff Brown said it had demonstrated the value of providing care for well women and their new families outside a hospital setting.

"It's not just about the birth, but about antenatal care and pregnancy, and a really good start to life."

Brown said the board would uphold the foundation's philosophy of care for women able to use the unit.

Birthing centre director Chloe Wright said it was exciting to see primary and hospital-based maternity services coming together to provide the best possible options for births.

"We all know the well-documented pressures hospital maternity units are facing across the country," she said.

"MidCentral DHB has recognised with this partnership that the existing primary birthing centres are part of the solution."

The 12-suite birthing centre was operating below its capacity.

Brown said he hoped the new arrangement would see it "appropriately full".

The joint service would also give women who gave birth in the hospital the option to move to Te Papaioea for their post-natal care.

Bringing hospital and primary birthing services under one umbrella would also create opportunities for midwives and other staff.

Te Papaioea staff would become board employees and be offered the flexibility to work in both settings.

Spargo said many midwives had said it would be great to spread their work across both primary and secondary birthing services.

She hoped it would create attractive work options that would help overcome challenges in the recruitment and retention of midwives.

Executive director for the midwives' union Meras, Jill Ovens, said it was good to see women's options improved.

It was a credit to the private provider for building the facility and to the board for taking responsibility for providing primary birth options, she said.

It would take pressure off staff working in the hospital setting and enhance their employment conditions.